HUC Cincinnati and LA campuses to stay open

NEW YORK (JTA) — The Cincinnati and Los Angeles campuses of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion will stay open, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Discussions had been under way to close the two campuses of the Reform movement’s seminary in an effort to save the financially strapped HUC millions of dollars per year. But in a meeting of the seminary’s board of governors Monday, the idea apparently was scrapped.

“The board has charged the administration to devise a plan that will attain financial sustainability and enhance our academic excellence,” HUC President Rabbi David Ellenson said in a statement, according to the Enquirer.

It was unclear what the HUC would do to revamp its financing, but the thought of closing Los Angeles and Cincinnati — the seminary’s main campus since it was founded — was met with an uproar from Cincinnati officials.

“We have a big meeting Thursday with local people,” Dick Weiland, a lobbyist and former member of HUC’s advisory board who fought hard to keep the Cincinnati campus open, told JTA. “We will review what we are doing then.”

About a quarter of HUC’s 400 students on four campuses, including New York and Jerusalem, are in Cincinnati.